Pickup rear-ends stalled truck, killing driver on I-80 in Gary

A pickup truck that rear-ended a a moving truck on Interstate 80 in Gary today, killing the pickup's driver.

A pickup truck that rear-ended a a moving truck on Interstate 80 in Gary today, killing the pickup's driver. (Indiana State Police photo)

Staff report

Alcohol is believed to have contributed to a crash on Interstate 80 in Gary that killed the driver of a pickup this afternoon and injured four of his passengers, two of them critically, police said.

The crash west of Central Avenue on I-80 in Gary killed Joshua Garner, 20 of Griffith, Ind., who was driving a 1998 Dodge Dakota just before 5 p.m. when the pickup rear-ended a stalled moving truck, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Ann Wojas, in a news release. Garner was declared dead on the scene by a Lake County, Ind., coroner’s office official.

The crash closed westbound I-80 for about two hours, Wojas said.

A 17-year old girl from Lansing who was a back-seat passenger in the extended-cab pickup had to be extricated from the truck and was taken with life-threatening head injuries to Methodist Hospital’s Northlake Campus in Gary, police said. A 20-year-old man from Lansing was taken via helicopter to Loyola University Hospital in Maywood with life-threatening injuries.

Two other passengers, a woman, age 19, of Griffith, and a man, 18, of Thornton, were taken to Methodist Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The events that led up to the crash started when a moving truck out of Osceola, Ind., stalled in the second lane from the right on the four-lane highway, police said. The driver activated the truck’s hazards, but first a semi-trailer truck sideswiped the truck, then the Dodge rear-ended the moving truck.

Alcohol was believed to be involved in the crash, Wojas said in the release.

After closing for helicopter access, accident reconstruction and cleanup, all lanes of I-80 reopened about 7:15 p.m, Wojas said.